What used to be
by Imtoolazytothinkofabettername
Summary: When James thinks of a way to get lily to go out with him, the pair start to discover what Severus Snape has been up to since the end of fifth year, but what will it mean for James and Lily's fragile friendship (or whatever you'd call it) and what about Snape. *BEING REWRITTEN*'
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I own nothing. Nada.**

**A/n: Okay. So yeah I'm in the process of rewriting the part of the story I've already written because, well I'm not gonna lie it was cringing-ly bad, we all know it. Anyway so the first chapter's not incredibly long but... Oh well. Enjoy! Btw if you're reading this for the first time then I suggest you ignore the rest of the chapters for now because they're not gonna make an ounce of sense. Oh and thanks to my absolutely amazing beta, Sineadyyy, whom I love with all my heart and is just so awesome that I just can't! Okay, now on with the story...**

**Monday**

"Hey Lily!"  
Lily Evans turned around to see James Potter jogging up to her.  
"Potter." She acknowledged his presence, but she wasn't going to start a conversation-  
she really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, let alone to James Potter. Much to her disappointment, he immediately started babbling.  
"Ok, so, I know you don't want to date me or anything," pretty impressive, Lily thought, it only took five years to drill that fact through his thick skull. "Well, um, on Saturday, I was thinking maybe you'd like to come with me to Hogsmeade?" Merlin, he just told me he knew that I wasn't planning to agree to date him anytime soon.  
"No." She said plainly, she wasn't going to dance around it.  
"No, Lily, I didn't mean a date-"  
"James, I'm really not going to argue with you about this!" She snapped, she regretted it as soon as it left her mouth, but Merlin, that boy just wouldn't take no for an answer.  
She regretted it even more after she saw the look on his face, it wasn't often James Potter looked completely defeated. She didn't know what to do, but she wasn't going to change her mind, so she gave him the best "I'm sorry" look she could muster and sped up to find somewhere she could sit alone with no one to bother her.

* * *

It was a Monday afternoon, lessons had just finished and Remus had helped the other marauders get all their homework done over the weekend, so everyone was relaxing in the common room. Peter and Sirius had just started a game of chess when James stalked through the portrait hole with a face like thunder.  
"Alright prongs?" Sirius called, not looking away from the chess board. James ignored him and carried on up to the stairs to the boys dormitory.  
"What's up with him?" Peter wondered aloud.  
Sirius shrugged, "Probably Evans, he'll get over it."

**Tuesday**

Gryffindor sixth years had double potions with Slytherin first thing on a Tuesday morning. It was the lesson of the week which everyone commonly dreaded the most. However, Lily Evans disliked it more than most. This was because she had to spend the entire two hours feeling the eyes of Severus Snape burning holes in the back of her head.  
Lily secretly still missed Severus, it had only been a matter of months since they'd had their fight. Well, it was less of a fight than it was him calling her a mudblood and her refusing to meet his eyes ever since. Sometimes she wished that they'd actually had an argument or at least something, the worst part of the whole thing was that she still had no idea why it had happened, one minute they were best friends, the next he seemed to hate her. Whenever she considered this, she always came up with one conclusion: he really did hate her. She wasn't sure whether or not she really believed this, really, she blamed it on the Slytherins. Severus new "friends" had never been anything but perfectly wretched to her, she'd decided that they must have bullied Sev into it.  
Across the room, whilst Lily was concerning herself with the events of last June; James was busy thinking of the events of the previous day. It had been a while since James had asked her out, he'd assumed she'd have come round with time but she'd had since first year, time obviously wasn't what she needed here. James hadn't given up of course, he'd just realised that he needed to try a different tactic, harassment really wasn't working.  
Neither James nor Lily were listening two hours later, when Slughorn dismissed the class. Alice Prewitt tapped her best friend on the shoulder when she realised that Lily wasn't getting ready to leave. "Come on, Lils, let's go then" Alice almost whispered. Lily looked up "sorry, Alice," and proceeded to clear her books away. The girls were the last to leave the classroom and so when they saw the crowd of people in the hallway, they had no idea what was going on.  
Lily and Alice were on the outside of the crowd, and the people all packed tightly around whatever was happening in the middle, completely blocked their view from it. What they would have seen, had they been able to, was James Potter and Severus Snape, both clutching their wands tightly, each of them ready to hex the other, should the opportunity arise.  
Behind James, Sirius Black was standing looking absolutely livid and behind him, there was Remus looking pleadingly at the back of James' head and Peter looking excited beyond control and yet at the same time, terrified into paralysis.  
Just as Lily and Alice started to elbow their way through the crowd to see what was going on, Professor McGonagall came around the corner, and people began to disperse so as to avoid any kind of punishment, unfortunately, Alice and Lily didn't realise what was happening, and only saw McGonagall after it was too late to make a run for it.  
"What's going on here?" McGonagall's stern, shrill voice filled the corridor. James immediately let go of his wand and Sirius tried his best to look sorry. When no one answered she said "alright then, 5 points for each of you from your houses and unless you all want to spend Saturday polishing trophies with Filch, you can all get to your lessons." Sirius shot Snape another look before turning and walking in the direction of their charms classroom along with everyone else.  
"What was that all about?" Asked Alice, who was a lot friendlier with the marauders than Lily was really happy with. "You know what Snape's like" answered Peter, sounding slightly angrier than he had looked at the time. Lily resisted the urge to point out that it was more likely to have been James or Sirius who had started it, not Snape, because she was still supposed to be angry at him.  
Charms, much to Lily's delight, went quickly and before she knew it, she was sitting up in her bed, reading.  
It was still quite early by most people's standards and so the common room was packed full of people, passing away the evening, chatting about homework or quidditch, or whatever had happened to them over the day. This is were Alice found herself sharing an armchair (which was technically only big enough for one) with her boyfriend of just over two months, Frank Longbottom.  
On the sofa and floor around them, the marauders were chatting away with every one else. Well, the marauders excluding James that was, who had barely spoken a word all night. Noticing this, Alice untangled herself from Frank and sat next to James.  
"Alright Potter?" She asked, jokingly.  
"Not really," he mumbled.  
"What's wrong?"  
"What d'ya think?"  
"Lily?"  
He nodded. Alice sighed, she knew that Lily just about tolerated James Potter and that was only because Alice had insisted that she didn't completely right him off. Alice also knew that Lily was stressing out about Snape, which was starting to annoy Alice because he really didn't deserve her worry.  
"James," she started, "okay, so I'm not telling you this because Lily's my best friend and you're literally the last person on the planet that she'd be okay with knowing about this, understand?" James looked a bit confused but nodded.  
"Listen, she's been stressing out about Snape, she's seriously worried about him, I know, I know, she's acting really stupid, but she cares about him, but, she did spend most of her childhood with him. Anyway, I think it would be great for her to go out with you (despite the arrogant git that you are), she needs something else to think about apart from Snape. Just, give her a while to get over him, okay? Wait until after Christmas, at least, it's only another couple of months."  
This didn't really make James feel better, but he agreed to anyway, before going up to bed.

* * *

A coupe of hours later, the rest of the marauders bounded up the stairs, not the slightest bit tired, they weren't going to bed, they were looking for James. As normal as it was for James to be rejected by Lily Evans, he really wasn't taking it well this time, and the boys were tired of watching him sulk.  
Little did James know, Sirius had been listening earlier when Alice had told him about Lily's worries about Snape. The boys jumped on James' bed where he was lying, face down, wishing he didn't exist.  
"Alright, young prongs-y we, have a plan," Sirius started, "so, you know how Lily is having super Snape issues or whatever, well, it's a good thing you're friends with three geniuses-"  
"James, for the record I don't think this is a good idea," Remus interrupted.  
"Shut up moony, don't listen to him. Where was I? Oh yes well we all know little Snivellus is up to something, I mean he and his mates, well whatever they spend their time doing, it won't be good, so here's an offer for Evans, the two of you, Saturday, following some Slytherins around."  
Sirius looked eagerly at his best mate as James considered the idea. It wasn't a bad idea, it's not exactly how he'd planned to spend his time with lily, but it was better than nothing. On the other hand, Remus had thought it was a bad idea and he was usually right about these things. "Why don't you like it, moony?" James asked, hoping it wouldn't matter.  
"If you were Lily, would you want spend the day, with anyone, let alone you, stalking your ex best friend?" James thought about this, he didn't agreed that it probably wasn't Lily's idea of paradise, but she'd be way to curious about Snape to say no, and it was only to get her to get to like him enough to give him a proper chance. After a few moments of debating, James made his mind up.  
"It's worthy a shot isn't it?" He said, and planned to ask her the first chance he got the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

A/n: hello everybody! Hopefully this chapter is a bit better than the last I took soon advice and got myself a beta. Read on!

I turned over and looked at my clock, for what must have been the tenth time since midnight. Yes, I thought to myself, quarter to seven, that's an acceptable time to get up.

I got out of bed, as quietly as possible, and slowly tiptoed my way to the door. The last thing I needed was to wake anyone up, especially Sirius, I was definitely not in the mood to listen to him joke about my date for the next six hours or so. Six hours? That's all the time left until I met Lily. Why on Earth was I so nervous? It's only Lily.

Lily. Lily, with her long, flowing, red hair and her bright green eyes. Lily. She was so beautiful. My train of thought was interrupted when I tripped on the bottom step, and found myself lying face-down on the floor of the empty common room.

I sighed as I slowly stood up and walked over to sit in one of the armchairs near the fire. "Couldn't sleep either?" I looked up to see Noah Rigsbee, a fellow seventh year, sitting in the corner, reading.

"No" I mumbled, embarrassed, realising that he had seen me fall over, "what's keeping you up?"

"My roommates" he replied "I'm a light sleeper you see and my roommates tend to snore. A lot."

I nodded grinning "I know the feeling" he smiled back. "What's keeping you up?" he asked

"I'm just a little nervous, I've got... Well I have a date today.

He nodded but didn't say anything else. I looked back into the fire, wanting to leave the common room and go for breakfast, but on the other hand, that would mean going up to the dormitory to get dressed and risk waking Sirius.

I decided to take my chances. "I'm, um, I'm going to get dressed," I told Noah and tiptoed up the stairs to my dorm. As I got to the dorm, I thanked god that Sirius was not a morning person. I opened my trunk as quietly as possible and got the first set of clothes I saw, looked at them and then put them back, remembering my date later. I found some clothes to wear and put them on, as quickly as possible then closed my trunk, found my shoes and ran as quietly as anyone can run, down the stairs to the common room.

I nodded to Noah on the way out, through the portrait hole. Once I was out, I strolled calmly to the great hall. Seeing as it was only seven o'clock, I decided that I had plenty of time. This morning would be a matter of how much time I could waste until it was time for lunch.

I arrived outside the great hall, realising that I was far too nervous to eat. There was no way I was going back to the common room where there would be a chance of meeting Sirius, or Lily for that matter.

I turned to leve the hall, to go and see Hagrid, the gate keeper. Walking into the entrance hall, I saw Severus Snape emerging from the Slytherin dungeons.

Trying not to look too conspicuous, I continued walking out the door, counted to thirty and stuck my head back in. I then ran back up to Gryffindor tower, finding Noah exactly where I'd left him, looking slightly confused at my hasty entrance. Not feeling like explaining, I pretended I hadn't noticed him and continued running up to my dormitory.

Remus was just getting out of bed as I walked in. "James! I was just wondering-"

"sorry Remus can't stop to chat. Where's the map?"

Remus pointed to the small chestnut cupboard next to Sirius' bed. I ran over to the cupboard and ripped the marauder's map from the shelf. Sirius was a heavy sleeper, he moaned a bit, but didn't wake up. "James what on Earth are you-"

"Snape" I interrupted again. That was all the explanation Remus needed, he didn't say anything else "I'll see you later" I said as I grabbed my invisibility cloak from my trunk and ran out the room.

Remus looked like he was about to say something but he obviously decided against it. He'd tell me later if it was important. I ran back through the common room, once again ignoring Noah, who was still looking slightly confused. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" I whispered as I put my cloak over my head. My eyes scanned the map, looking for Snape.

I found him, in Professor Slughorn's potions ingredients store. What on Earth was Snape up to?

Lily p.o.v

I looked up and down the gryffindor table once again. Still no sign of James, I thought with a sigh. Even though we hadn't planned to meet until lunch time, I'd still expected to meet him at breakfast.

I glanced at my watch. Quarter past eight, James wasn't exactly known to be an early riser, but the rest of the marauders were already down. "Lily, will you please sit still, you're making me dizzy" my best friend,

Peggy Pearman snapped. I looked at her and we both burst out into fits of laughter, for no apparent reason.

We could never argue, we just ended up laughing. We were getting some pretty weird looks from some first years across the table. "Come on Pegs" I said, standing up, grabbing a piece of toast from across the table "I think we both need some fresh air " I grabbed her arm as we both tried to walk out of the room trying not to double over in laughter as we walked out.

"Pegs, come on I have a good excuse for acting stupid, what's wrong with you?"

"gosh Lily, do you not know me at all? I always act stupid" we both burst out laughing again. We found a spot under the tree, next to the lake and sat down, our backs resting on the wide trunk. It was a cool morning and I was glad of my jacket, but it wasn't too bad considering it was mid October.

"So" Peggy started, "what time's the date?" she nudged me in the stomach with her elbow. I blushed. "Well we're going to meet in the great hall at lunch"

"At lunch? Lils that means I'm going to have to spend the whole afternoon alone."

"For god sake Peggy, don't be such a drama queen, you do have other friends, you know"

"yes but none of them are anywhere near as much fun as you are, Lily, they just look at me weirdly when I burst into spontaneous laughter" "that doesn't mean they're not fun, that just means that they're just a little bit more sane than we are"

"Anyway, lily, for god sake stop changing the subject" "

Ummm, actually Peggy, I thought it was you who changed the subject" "Stop being a smart arse and listen"

I saluted her "yes captain," she glared back."Okay I'm sorry, I'll shut up now"

"Do you know what you're going to wear?" she asked.

I looked down at what I was wearing, "I thought I'd just wear this" she also glanced down at my jeans and T-shirt, looking unimpressed. "It's a good thing you have me" she said, patting my hand "come on" she pulled me up.

"Where are we going?" I asked "To find you something acceptable to wear" she replied happily. "Charming" I mumbled back.

James p.o.v 

I crept along the hallway that led to professor Slughorn's stores. I could see the door was closed, I checked the map, Snape was still in there. There was no way I could get in, he may not be able to see me, but he would definitely be able to see the door open.

I'd just have to wait until he came out. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have a plan, it was unlikely that Snape would just walk out of the store cupboard, just carrying everything he had stolen. I decided to wait five minutes and see if he came out.

After about a minute he walked out, stuffing various ingredients into a black bag, which he was wearing over his shoulder. I followed him silently, through the corridors of the dungeons, before he came to a halt outside an empty potions glanced over his shoulder, what I assumed was checking to see if anyone was looking, before opening the classroom door.

I took my chance and ran in, just before he closed the door. I walked as quietly as possible to a wooden bench in one corner of the classroom, furthest from where Snape was standing. I watched as he rolled up his sleeves, retrieved a piece of paper out of his bag, and then read it, before placing it on the table and getting a cauldron from a pile next to the door.

He quickly got to work, chopping, slicing and dicing ingredients and then pouring them from his chopping board into the cauldron. He put the cauldron over the flames he had conjured seconds before.

He then reached into his bag, bringing out a book and sat down and read whilst his potion boiled away. This was going to be a long morning, I was quickly realising what a mistake I had made when coming in here. I was trapped, there was no way out without revealing myself, and I was in no hurry to do that.

Lily p.o.v 

Peggy was sat on my bed, staring at my open wardrobe. She had been doing this for the last hour and a half and if she didn't move soon, I was going to have to do something.

In that hour and a half, I had finished a potions essay on the uses of eel eyes in everyday potions and my star chart for Astronomy. I had also had a shower. I was now sat on my bed, in nothing but a towel, waiting for Peggy to move, or talk, or do something.

"Peggy my date is today, you know" Peggy slowly turned her head to look at me, well it was more of a glare actually, "it's not my fault, all you own is T-shirts"

"there's nothing wrong with my T-shirts" I said defensively "I just like to stay casual"

"Lilly, the meaning of casual is not, to just wear T-shirts and exclude every other piece of clothing that exists " I giggled, peggy looked at me as if I had burst out laughing at her nan's funeral.

"Lily, this is not funny," that just made me laugh more. "Lily will you please stop laughing" it didn't work "Fine then, I'll just take it that you don't want my help."

She started to walk out the room, so I ran and grabbed her, "I'm sorry, I promise I won't laugh again," she playfully glared at me before walking back to my wardrobe and resuming her staring position. I sat down on the bed again.

Peggy, after almost two hours of staring, decided it was acceptable for me to wear a plain _T-shirt_ with a long sleeved cardigan over it. I quickly got dressed and started brushing my hair.

It was now mid day, I planned that I would go down to lunch at one o'clock.

Peggy and I walked down to the common room, where we found Greta Catchlove, sat with Sinead Lynch, Cathy O'Reily and Scarlett Longmire, all complaining about the latest piece of transfiguration homework.

"Hey guys" Peggy chirped. "Hi" one of the girls replied. "What are you up to?" asked Sinead

"oh, not much" I answered "just getting ready for this afternoon."

"What's happening this afternoon?"

"Lily's got a date" Greta butted in "with James, haven't you Lily?" Was I imagining the accusing tone?

"Yes, yes we're actually meeting soon, well soonish, so we must be off mustn't we Peggy?" Peggy looked a bit confused but nodded, never the less, and we both rushed out of the common room, before anyone could say anything else.

"What was that all about?" Peggy demanded as we stepped into the corridor. "Sorry" I whispered, pulling her closer "I think Greta might have a crush on James." I admitted "why would you think that?" asked Peggy, looking excited at the new gossip

"did you see the way she told every one about the date"

"Lily, come on, you were probably just imagining it, Greta's happy for you, we all are"

"ok, I suppose you're right" but I wasn't convinced, far from it actually, but I wasn't going to argue about it.

James p.o.v 

I didn't know how long it'd been since I had been trapped in there, but it must have been at least a couple of hours, my legs had long since fallen asleep and I was surprised that Snape had barley moved at all.

I don't know why he was making this potion, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't for professor Slughorn. Finally, Snape stood up. He peered into the cauldron, which was bubbling away, he looked around the room, putting his book down on the work top.

Looked like Snivellus Snape was bored of reading! I never thought I'd see the day. He turned around, and started walking over to the corner where I was curled up, underneath the cloak, I glanced down to my toes, making sure that my whole body was under the cloak.

Nothing seemed to be sticking out. Snape reached out to inspect a book, on the bookshelf next to the bench where I was seated. He paused his arm halfway to the bookshelf and pulled his wand out from his sleeve, but I beat him to it " expelliarmus" I shouted.

I grabbed his wand and dogged round him, running out of the room as fast as I could, dropping his wand, on the stairs up to the first floor. I kept running, all the way up the stairs to Gryffindor tower.

I barked the password at the portrait and stopped, with my back to the wall, panting, when I got into the common room. I looked around to see four seventh year girls staring at me. I stood up straight and pretended that everything was normal.

"Have any of you seen the other Marauders, by any chance?"

"not since they left for breakfast" answered Greta. "Don't you have a date with Lily?" asked Cathy. My eyes widened when I remembered where I was supposed to be. "What time is it?"

" five past one" provided Sinead, nodding to the clock on the mantelpiece?

"Right, thank you" I flashed a quick smile and ran back out the room.

A/n: sorry, I didn't put the date in this chapter, but it was getting pretty long, so I decided that I'd save it for the next chapter. Xx :)


	3. Chapter 3

A/n Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted for a while, but I've been kinda busy... So yeah. Anyway theres a couple of things I need to sort out. First in the chapter one I mentioned that lily saw Sirius in potions with professor slughorn. I know professor slughorn said that he never taught Sirius, sorry I only remembered after I posted it, so just to make things easier for me, since I am so lazy, let's just say he was taught by professor slughorn, this will end up as an AU fic anyway. And equally as I am so lazy let's say that the marauders and lily picked pretty much the same newts because (and please correct me if I'm wrong) I don't think jk Rowling ever tells us much about what the marauders did pick for their newts. Finally if anyone has any idea, of any teachers or students that were at hogwarts at the same time as the marauders, do tell because I'm struggling to find any characters that were and I don't want to make up a random trasnfiguration teacher if there is one that already exists. Ok sorry it was such a long authors note. Thanks for reading my fic! :)

I put the smallest sandwich I could find on my plate .I doubted that I would be able to eat much lunch but it was worth a try. I glanced to the door again, but there was no sign of James.

I had a felling that this was going to be very similar to breakfast. Peggy wasn't nagging me about my fidgeting this time though, I think she was just as worried as I was about James showing up.I'd be terrified if I was James, I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of one of Peggy's hexes.

There was a loud clanging at the entrance of the hall, I looked over to see James replacing a pile of used plates to their place on the edge of the table. He was slowly turning very, very red. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed, then quickly snapped his head back down when he saw that he had the attention of a large percentage of people in the hall.

He walked down the table, clearly searching for the marauders, but stopped looking when he saw me. He blushed again, realising that I'd seen him knock the plates over. I moved along the bench a bit, then invited him to sit next to me.

"Hi Lily, sorry... umm I mean... Sorry I was late" he messed his hair up and smiled nervously?

"It's ok, you're not really late anyway, we're not actually on a date until after lunch" I winked.

"Ahhhh, I see so we're not on a date now, so you know when I just knocked those plates over, that didn't actually happen..."

"I don't know what you're talking about" I teased.

He smiled, I smiled back.

Peggy slowly got up from her now, very squashed place on the bench. "I'm just gonna - you know - see you later"

"bye Pegs" I called after her as she walked out the hall.

"So what's the plan?" I asked James,

"Well I was thinking we might be able to skip the whole Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shop thing, we can go if you want to-"

"James, if you take me there I promise you there will be no second date, honestly I can't step into that place without involuntary retching."

James laughed "I'm the same, I'm so glad you're not one of those girls" I smiled back, slightly embarrassed.

We finished our lunch and made our way into Hogsmeade. "Since I'm not one of those girls, does that mean it's the three broomsticks?" I asked "I guess it does," James smiled.

We walked into the Three Broomsticks, it had it's usual saturday crowd of teachers and students from Hogwarts. We sat at a table and James went to get our butter beers from the bar.

As he returned, a large group of Slytherins walked in and sat at a table in the far corner of the pub. He watched intently as they took their seats, whispering about who-knows(or cares)-what.

James p.o.v 

Since the Slytherins had walked in about fifteen minutes ago, I had probably turned this into the worst date ever. I tried really hard to keep my thoughts on Lily and our poor excuse of a conversation, but I found my thoughts drifting back to Snape and what had happened in that potions classroom this morning.

Why was Snape making potions, early on a Saturday morning? I had never really seen him around school on Saturdays since he stopped being friends with Lily, I had always assumed that he'd been sulking -or hiding- in the Syltherin dungeons, but is this what he was doing instead?

"...don't you think?"

"sorry what?"

Lily sighed "That potions essay that Slughorn gave us was really unfair-"

Lily was interrupted from an outburst from the table where the Slytherins were seated. "Zeke, sit down mate, you're making a scene" Drew O'Reiley was giving his fellow seventh year Slytherin, Zeke Clarke the evils.

All eyes in the pub was now looking at the table in the corner, clearly the opposite to what the Slytherins had been hoping for when they picked that table to sit at.

Zeke's eyes scanned the pub, before he gave the Slytherins at the table a meaningful look, before whispering "I'm going for a walk, I need some air." And he stalked out the pub, all eyes still on him.

Once the door closed behind him, talked resumed as it was, as if nothing had happened, although a few of the Slytherins looked quite uneasy. If I was on my own, I would probably have ran out of the pub after him without a second thought, but I wasn't about to leave Lily in the lurch. Still I could feel my curiosity growing the longer I sat there.

"Do you fancy a walk?" I asked Lily, the second she finished her butter beer. She gave me a look that told me what her answer would be.

"James, I'm not spending this date stalking some over-emotional Slytherin for no good reason."

I had suspected an answer along those lines. I considered asking her if she knew anything about Snape, but then quickly decided against it, I didn't think she knew or wanted to know for that matter, and I didn't want to upset her. This was already veering off into the category of "a date from hell".

"James, I know this is a date and I really, really don't want to bring this up, but I was just wondering..." she paused "...wondering if you have any idea, of what Severus has been up to lately"

I stared at her completely in shock. I didn't know what to say, I had never in a million years, imagined that she would have brought him up. I used to see them around together all of the time, when Lily used to hate my guts that was, I never really knew what she saw in him, but they were friends.

Most people thought that they were a couple, either that or they thought they would end up that way. I thought that's what Snape was hoping for as well, I was never quite sure about Lily.

They were as close as Sirius and I were, until, I guess, he got bored of her. I don't know what he was thinking, he didn't have many other friends (ones that still attended Hogwarts anyway).

Sirius and I were messing around with him, when she (Lily that is) tried to defend him. That was the first time I asked her out (properly that is, I had made sure that my feelings were well known with, well pretty much everyone in the school), probably some bad timing on my part, I mean I would have said yes if I were her, but then, we're very different people and I don't think she was as impressed as I thought she would be, at my hanging her best friend upside-down, in mid-air.

Anyway, she defended him (or tried to) and he called her a "filthy mudblood", which led to a lot of running and crying. Anyhow, he's one to talk about parentage, he's a half blood, and from what I've heard (which isn't a lot) his father wasn't the best of muggles.

"James? James"

"hmmm" "you, Severus, knowledge?"

What should I've told her? Should I've mentioned that morning, in the potions classroom, or was it best she didn't know? What about my suspicions about him being a death eater? But surely, she knew the rumours, otherwise she wouldn't be asking. What did I know anyway? Not that much for sure, all I knew was that he'd been acting mysteriously, which wasn't much out of the ordinary for a guy like him, that's about it.

"Lily, you've heard the rumours, I'm sure I don't know anymore than what everyone else knows." I then added "but I'll bet you tem chocolate frogs that those Slytherin's know something about it" I nodded my head in the direction of the large Slytherin group in the corner.

"What makes you say that?" she asked, clearly more amused than intrigued, but I continued, nevertheless"they're sneaking around, obviously got something to hide, and Zeke looked pretty freaked out, a couple of minutes ago"

She looked unconvinced, but clearly determined to find out what was going on with her ex-best friend, she said "ok if you think Zeke knows what's happening with Severus then let's follow him, see if he does anything suspicious" she said suspicious in a sarcastic tone, but I could tell she was being serious about following him.

I thought about this for a second. I wanted to find out more about what Snape was up to, and I was going to need some help, the other marauders weren't going to do much; Remus was too busy, what with studying and being head boy, Peter was too... well basically too nice, and Sirius was too lazy to do anything that didn't involve Snape in a lot pain straight away. I was running out of choices and Lily was nice and funny, and also very good looking, so basically, someone I wouldn't mind spending plenty of time with.

"Ok" I said, standing up and pushing my chair back under the table,"let's go then."


	4. Chapter 4

A/n Hello again everyone, and sorry again for the long waits between updates, it's just with it being summer and everything, I've just been to lazy to do anything but watch tv and sleep. Anyway here's the chapter (I like this one):

We walked out of the pub, both silent. I got the feeling that the two of us were doing this for very different reasons. I think James was simply curious, wheras I actually cared about Sev. I didn't want him to be getting into too much trouble.

When I had heard the rumours of him becoming a death eater, I hadn't believed them for a second, but as time went on I found myself getting less and less certain. I hadn't seen him around school, during anything but classes for what felt like ages, he didn't seem to spend as much time with the other Slytherins as he used to for a while after we stopped being friends.

It just wasn't like Sev though, he had told me how much he had hated prejudice towards muggle borns. Either he had changed, a lot, or he had told me lies for the past ten years. I wasn't sure which one it was.

I knew that he didn't mean it, when he called me a mudblood. I didn't at the time but I did now. I don't know why he said it, I guess he was feeling defensive, but I'll never know.

I'd of forgiven him if he wanted my forgiveness, but I didn't think that things were ever going to be the same between the two of us again.

James was scanning the horizon for any sign of Zeke. Hogsmeade was pretty busy, due to all of the students from Hogwarts, so it was pretty difficult to find Zeke in the crowd. "I say we go back to school," I started, "It's too early for anyone else to be going back yet, so it'll be easier to spot him, and that's probably what I would do if I were Zeke."

James looked at me, then nodded in agreement. "So uh... Lily, I don't mean to be nosy, but why are you doing this? I thought that you and Snape aren't what you would call, close anymore, I'm surprised you still care about him"

"Who said I did?" I answered a little too quick "But if there are death eaters at our school, I want to know"

James gave me a look, that told me that he didn't believe me, but he didn't argue.

Why did I care anyway? It's not like he cared about me anymore. Either way, I was curious to what was going on, and it would give James and I, stuff to do and talk about. Before I brought Sev up, the date was going badly. Very badly.

As we walked along the long pathway back to Hogwarts, I found my thoughts drifting to Sev. I missed him, Peggy was amazing, but, well she just wasn't Sev. She never made me laugh like he did, though most of the time, it wasn't on purpose.

"What are you smiling at?" James asked teasingly. I looked up, blushing, "I was just...remembering." I smiled again. James looked down, now he was blushing, he had obviously taken it the wrong way, but then, he would. I considered explaining, but quickly decided not to, he probably didn't want to hear anyway.

I went back to my thoughts. Sev and I were sitting by the lake, on an unusually warm and sunny day. He was lying on the grass, reading Hogwarts: a History, for the hundred and umpteenth time, and I was sitting up, talking to him.

"Peggy's got another crush" I announced. Sev was like my diary, anything I knew, he knew. Unfortunately, this didn't work the other way around, I never found out a thing about his life in the Slytherin dungeons.

He groaned, I giggled "Lily, seriously, I don't want to spend another Saturday afternoon, discussing the potential attractiveness of Noah Rigsbee" I laughed again.

"Awwwww, come on Sev, you're always spoil my fun. Plus, you'll enjoy talking about this one way more than plain old Noah Rigsbee" He sighed "Go on"

"She's decided that James Potter is her new destiny" He sat up so fast, that I swore I heard a whoosh, and said in an almost whisper "And what do you think? Of Potter, I mean"

"Oh, he's so not my type" I said, in my best Peggy voice. He smiled, it seemed more in relief, than anything else, "So, what exactly is your type?" he asked again, in yet another super quiet voice. Was he-? No, he couldn't possibly be- I glanced up, to look at the smirk on his face- he was! Severus Snape was flirting! With me! Well two could play at that game.

"I'm more into the mysterious, bad-boy type" he looked at me, and then laughed out loud.

"What?" I said, slightly offended

"Lily Evans, that is the biggest lie you have ever told, you, my friend, are a Gryffindor girl through and through."

"And?"

"And you don't get mysterious bad-boys in Gryffindor, you get loud mouthed, pompous toddlers like Potter."

"Noah Rigsbee isn't a pompous toddler," I pointed out

"He isn't a mysterious bad-boy either," Severus said cleverly, I opened my mouth to say something, but Sev beat me to it

"Can we please talk about something else? I thought I'd just told you, that I didn't want to spend this afternoon, talking about the potential attractiveness of Noah Rigsbee" I laughed.

When I found myself back in reality, we were already at Hogwarts, and I promised myself that I wouldn't let my thoughts and memories interrupt this date anymore, we'd spent enough time in silence. "I think we have a problem" James started "He's probably gone to the Slytherin dungeons, that's what I would do, I mean, if I was in Slytherin".

I thought about this for a second, and then shook my head "I wouldn't, he was obviously freaked out, I think he'd want to be alone, to be able to think."

"Jeez Lily, Hogwarts is a big place, there are a thousand and one different places where he could be alone in the castle, not to mention, the grounds"

"We better get searching then" I said enthusiastically.

"What if we find him?" said James, we'd only been searching for about half an hour, but he was already getting bored, Merlin, did the boy have any patience? We were currently on our way to astronomy tower, it had been his idea to search there, it was a good idea, he would be good at this, if he cared for long enough to actually find anything.

"What do you mean, what if we find him? That is the aim of us being here" I said, trying very hard not to sound annoyed.

"I mean, what are we going to do, if he's doing what you think he's doing, then he's going to be sat alone thinking, that's not going to help us much." As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. "We could talk to him, ask him what happened at the pub"

"And, he'll just tell us? This guy's in Slytherin, not Hufflepuff Lily, he's not going to say a word"

"Then why don't you suggest something?" He looked troubled for a moment, as if he was deciding what to do, then he opened his mouth to speak. "Lily, there's something else, something I didn't mention earlier, this morning, I saw Snape in a potions classroom"

"What was he doing? Why didn't you say before?"

"Look, I wasn't sure what I saw, I'm still not, I didn't want to say anything, because I didn't know if it was something to worry about or not."

"What could he have been doing?" I wondered out loud.

"Lily, he was probably just practicing, I find it hard to believe that you-know-who, would have put a teenager, in charge of making potions"

"I don't know, Sev is pretty good at potions."

"What did you just call him?"

"Sev? What?"

"He's not your best friend anymore,Lily, he's a bloody death eater" James had stopped walking and was looking at me as if I had just sworn my allegiance to Voldermort himself.

"Sorry" I mumbled "It was just out of habit"

We started walking again. "I can't believe you were ever friends with that idiot anyway"

"James, I'm sorry, but Severus was my best friend and I loved him, I still do, in a way, and this really isn't something I want to talk about, so we can either find something else to talk about, or we forget about finding Zeke."

He looked at me, out of the corner of his eyes. "I'm sorry" he whispered.

" 'pology accepted" We continued walking in silence. We arrived at the bottom of the Astronomy tower and started climbing the staircase. Behind me, I could hear James dragging his feet and clanging them onto the metal stairs. I viciously turned around at put my finger to my lips, whilst glaring at him, to tell to shut the hell up.

I could hear the murmur of a conversation above us and I was hopeful. We stopped on the landing below the top of the tower to listen.

"Aimee, I'm not saying we have to leave, we just have to be careful about who we're seen with."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Aimee, they're recruiting people, Snape's already one of them and Drew's on the way there, they're after me and it won't be long before they start asking you"

"So? We'll just say no and leave it at that"

"Aimee, I don't think you understand, we can't just leave it at that, we have to choose what side we're on and we have to do it soon." "You're starting to sound like dad, seriously, we're only teenagers," "No, Aimee, I'm legally an adult and you will be too, in less than a year"

"Ok ok, I get it, now can I please go and enjoy my Saturday" Aimee Clarke, Zeke's younger sister, turned to walk down the stairs but thankfully, he grabbed her hand before she could leave. "Just think about it, ok Aims? I love you"

She gave a small smile "I love you too" and turned around slower this time, to come down the stairs. James grabbed my hand and hissed "Play along" into my ear. He pulled me up the stairs, grinning and pecked me on the lips half way there "Giggle" He ordered.

I started the most annoyingly girly sound, I had ever made, as we bounded up the stairs, meeting Aimee and Zeke at the top. I stopped giggling as I saw them.

"Oh, sorry" James started

"It's fine" Zeke answered, in a cold voice, recognising the Gryffindor joker "We were leaving anyway."

A/n ok guys, that chapter was a bit longer than normal, I'd like to say, it was to make up for the long wait but that would be lie, I just had a lot to write. Thanks to my beta sineady! That's all for now I'll hopefully update quite soon. -Rosie


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